Now that the 2012 growing season is well underway I would like to report on the conditions in the northern area of Barnegat Bay. The three north upwellers received this years supply of seed oysters on June 8 with IBSP and MYC receiving appox. 30K (vol. 250ml) and CI receiving 60K. (vol. 500ml). They have been growing at a very rapid rate with volumes of 100,100 at CI and 35400 at IBSP. But on July 21st we discovered a tragic loss of all oysters at the MYC upweller. Runoff from a newly paved street caused by a severe rainstorm and the loss of power for one or more days appears to be the cause. Fortunately the majority of our clams were able to survive and we are still attempting to evaluate the mortality rate.
On June 25th IBYC and MYC received 105,000 (2000ml) clams each and they have more than doubled in volume in the last seven weeks.
On June 6th Gef brought 3.1 million oyster larvae to Cattus Island to begin this years Spat-on-Shell project. We placed 90 mesh bags containing surf clam shells in our tank. Four weeks later on July 11 we removed five bags and counted the spat on each shell. We were disappointed to discover a low set rate of 1.75%. We emptied the tank and brought the shells with their spat to the oyster reef. Gef was able to obtain quite a few trays and on August 1st we filled 12 trays with oysters and placed them in the now empty tank. On August 8th we checked the growth rate in the tank and were pleased to discover an average growth rate of 27% in one week.
One of the better spat settings
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